Starting out with new cc

[Funky]

Ok so I have been slowly sifting through the mountains of information but have a long way to go.
I already have several cc in my life but none are helpful towards points aside from giving me credit history etc.
So now Im looking to take the step into more useful cc and have a few questions.

1. so going by the cc offers listed in here and even the referal thread, it looks like quite a few people do a fair bit of churning. I can understand that for some of the cards having high annual fees and it's not always effective having 4 cards with $400+ annual fees and not using them every day/week. Does it not actually put much of a hit on your credit rating and even credit history to continually turn cards over? Im assuming people have a handful of fee-less cards they hang onto which keeps the history up.

2. I do have several cc and have cancelled some in the past but Im just now looking to start taking up some of the offers to start gaining points. Is it worth doing say a big group application to start off and scoop up what I can and maybe get some of the hard pulls on my score combined? I understand there are some minimum spend requirements on some and I think with the ammount we spend through woolworths and on fuel we could easily meet the requirements on a couple of cards in the first few months.

3.My wife and I both work fulltime, Id say household income is somewhere between 90-100k. Are there certain deals/bonuses that I could be taking advantage of considering there are 2 of us? For example, none of our finances are linked yet. Im not sure if doing that would be beneficial or not. We are happy to do it if it's a help to anything. She does most of the shopping since she works in town and usually just takes both of our bank cards anyway.


Sorry for the several questions lumped into one. Im happy for yes/no/short answers or as long as you want. Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'd be looking to factor in any fees payable, and the required spend, and work out if the points will be worth your while.

What sort of trip are you aiming for?

If you are collecting Qantas points there are extraordinarily high fees (fuel surcharges) associated with redeeming very scare premium tickets. And award levels are very high.

The annual credit card fee + fuel surcharge + high number of points requied for a qantas award you may be better off buying points through Lifemiles or United and redeeming an (easy to get) business or first class ticket for as little as $1500 per person return to anywhere in Asia. Or $2000 for first class.

The same applies for earning points for Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer via CC. Although award availability is easy, and point levels quite low, the fuel surcharges are expensive.

I'd be determining: where you want to go, how many points that would need, how much the fuel surcharges are... and then look at the credit card vs buying miles outright.

 

[Dr Ralph]

1. so going by the cc offers listed in here and even the referal thread, it looks like quite a few people do a fair bit of churning. I can understand that for some of the cards having high annual fees and it's not always effective having 4 cards with $400+ annual fees and not using them every day/week. Does it not actually put much of a hit on your credit rating and even credit history to continually turn cards over? Im assuming people have a handful of fee-less cards they hang onto which keeps the history up.

Of course there is an impact to your credit rating. It would be naive to think that there is no impact.

But income and ability to repay are important to any provider of finance.

If you are thinking of a home loan I'd give the churn game a break for 6 months. But if you have a high good stable income then 10 cards a year should not be a problem.

2. I do have several cc and have cancelled some in the past but Im just now looking to start taking up some of the offers to start gaining points. Is it worth doing say a big group application to start off and scoop up what I can and maybe get some of the hard pulls on my score combined? I understand there are some minimum spend requirements on some and I think with the ammount we spend through woolworths and on fuel we could easily meet the requirements on a couple of cards in the first few months.

I don't think from a credit rating point of view it makes much different. But having 4 new cards at the same time with a $2500 spend required on each may prove difficult to achieve.

 

[RooFlyer]

Not being a holder of many ccs at any one time, I can't help you with most of your queries, sorry (but I'm glad you asked ).

But if you bank with one of the big 4, I think they all have some good points earning cards and should be easy to get at least your own bank's, and probably others. I bank with CBA and their personal and business plat cards are pretty good (and the business cards still earn with the ATO) and I recently got the Westpac Altitude Black for a nice 100K bonus, for $5K spend in 90 days.

Personally, I would go slowly, applying for the 'best' cards first, and then try to see when you start meeting resistance (ie closer scrutiny). A knock-back probably would be bad on your credit record.

 

[Funky]

Thanks guys.
Hmmm well I was looking to go Qantas but now you have me worried with fees and surcharges being so high. That was something I wasn't aware of.
So if I was looking at that current Westpac Black I think it was, I might be better looking at the Altitude rewards instead of Qantas.
I'm not set on any destination at the moment, happy to go anywhere since I have not flown international before. I think NZ, Thailand and Malaysia would be good places to start but I really would go anywhere.

2 new cards with $2500 spend would be no problem, 3 I think is manageable too. 4 would require a bit of number crunching to see if achievable.

I do have an account with one of the big 4 but hardly use it as my wage goes into an account from a smaller bank. Have thought about changing that though.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Thanks guys.
Hmmm well I was looking to go Qantas but now you have me worried with fees and surcharges being so high. That was something I wasn't aware of.

This shouldn't be a concern for you.

Whilst it is true that Qantas has very high charges, other airlines such as Cathay that you can use via Qantas points have amongst the lowest charges.

 

[exceladdict]

1. so going by the cc offers listed in here and even the referal thread, it looks like quite a few people do a fair bit of churning. I can understand that for some of the cards having high annual fees and it's not always effective having 4 cards with $400+ annual fees and not using them every day/week. Does it not actually put much of a hit on your credit rating and even credit history to continually turn cards over? Im assuming people have a handful of fee-less cards they hang onto which keeps the history up.

It's more about the number of cards in the recent 3/6/12 months; but in my experience banks are primarily concerned with how many you have open when you're applying for the next one (ie what your current liability is - and it's calculated on your max limit, not how much you've used). Therefore minimising your open limit when applying for the next card is a good strategy. It's also important to consider the minimum credit limit for cards when applying. Some are very high (around 15k) but you can sometimes reduce them below the published 'minimum' after you've had it open for a while.

High annual fee cards might be held on to because they have good earn rates or other bonuses (such as free flights, insurance, lounge access, etc) which people value at different amounts, to offset the annual fee. Similarly with other cards like ones with no foreign transaction fee.

I typically turn over the high fee cards with high earn rates on an annual basis to avoid fees, and hold on to a no-forex card, as well as churning others that have high sign on bonuses from time to time. Dr Ralph is the resident expert at churning.

2. I do have several cc and have cancelled some in the past but Im just now looking to start taking up some of the offers to start gaining points. Is it worth doing say a big group application to start off and scoop up what I can and maybe get some of the hard pulls on my score combined? I understand there are some minimum spend requirements on some and I think with the ammount we spend through woolworths and on fuel we could easily meet the requirements on a couple of cards in the first few months.

Sure, as they'd all clear off at the same point in time when you get 3, 6, 12 months past that chunk of applications. Think about home loans etc though as others have mentioned.

3.My wife and I both work fulltime, Id say household income is somewhere between 90-100k. Are there certain deals/bonuses that I could be taking advantage of considering there are 2 of us? For example, none of our finances are linked yet. Im not sure if doing that would be beneficial or not. We are happy to do it if it's a help to anything. She does most of the shopping since she works in town and usually just takes both of our bank cards anyway.

CC's are usually based on individual income so check the minimum income requirement. They typically range from 30k for basic cards to 50-65 for mid-upper ones like the QF Ultimate to 100k+ for the top of the line amex charge cards.

In regards to playing the game as a couple - absolutely. If you look at american express cards, most of which have referral bonuses, one of you can sign up and then refer the other! That results in a bonus of around 15k points usually (such as on this one).

The thing to watch out for are the 12-18 month prohibition periods for bonus points. Normally if you get a sign up bonus, you have to cancel the card and then wait out 12-18 months before signing up and getting another bonus.

You can usually get free supplementary cards for the other partner to help with meeting minimum spend requirements etc. If not; you can sometimes do this with android/samsung/apple pay! Supplementary cards also don't count towards the 12-18 month exclusion periods.

Sorry for the several questions lumped into one. Im happy for yes/no/short answers or as long as you want. Any feedback is appreciated.

Don't be, it's what AFF is for!

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks guys.
Hmmm well I was looking to go Qantas but now you have me worried with fees and surcharges being so high. That was something I wasn't aware of.
So if I was looking at that current Westpac Black I think it was, I might be better looking at the Altitude rewards instead of Qantas.
I'm not set on any destination at the moment, happy to go anywhere since I have not flown international before. I think NZ, Thailand and Malaysia would be good places to start but I really would go anywhere.
<snip>

If you have a pre-demined strategy for going for multiple cards, why not spread the programs/airlines around? Yes, QFF has high taxes, but as Dr Ralph says, there are other airlines you can use your QFF points with who have lower taxes. You might also go for a card that gets you Virgin Velocity points - handy as they have several international partners you can use them for and they are also convertible to Krisflyer (SQ) miles so you can not only book directly with SQ but also book on other Star Alliance airlines like Thai. Personally, as SQ have high taxes, if I want to fly them, I use my Air Canada Aeroplan miles - they charge very low taxes on SQ flights! (Not that I'd recommend joining Aeroplan unless you were actually planning to fly with Air Canada a lot).

Yes, it is complicated but hang around and keep asking questions and you'll get the hang of it.

<snip>
I do have an account with one of the big 4 but hardly use it as my wage goes into an account from a smaller bank. Have thought about changing that though.

Keep reading the current threads on cc bonuses - at least one I recall waives the annual fee for existing customers. Some people set up a fee free account before they apply for the cc to take advantage of this. With an existing benign account, hpefully your bank has such an offer (or may in the future) with good bonus points. Saving $300-odd which is the usual magnitude of fee, is certainly worth it.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It's true you can use Qantas points to Cathay flights and avoid the bulk of fuel surcharges, but Cathay flights require more points... for a couple that could be another $20K spend on your credit card just to get the points required.

 

[Funky]

Looks like Japan could be a destination for us. Seems to be a few different options to get there also.